Her Painless Times
by RosAangel Naito
Summary: "You got the wrong idea. I don't kill people, I only hurt people. The only person I ever murdered was Ryuzaki Sakuno." It was she who had killed her kind loving self, Sakuno. There was no one to blame but...her.


**A/N: Ukiki! I'm sooooo excited! Hello~I'm Gellie and this is my first fanfic so please forgive my mistakes and point them out to me so that I can correct them! Read and review, and no flames please...I might get very snappy and scary. T_T Shudder...It feels bad too(like your heart is all stuffed up with something...). Anyways, I should stop babbling. LET'S GET ON WITH THE STORY! Ukiki!**

**Disclaimer: I will never own Prince of Tennis unless Konomi Takeshi goes mental and sells Tenipuri to a poor girl like me...Which isn't possible. Plus...The probability of me bumping into him in Japan is very small(what will I be doing in Japan anyway?).**

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_**«Prologue »**_

Death.

_Bzzzzt...Bzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzzt..._

Echizen Ryoma shifted in his sleep. His tangled ink-green hair rubbed against his pillow as he moved and made his dark locks even messier.

_Bzzzzt...Bzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzzt..._

The tennis prodigy's brow furrowed at the electric buzzing sound. He groaned, rolling onto his side while pulling the covers over his head.

_Bzzzzt...Bzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzzt..._

Sadly, his attempt to muffle the sound didn't work. The irritating ringing of his phone continued to nag him as the seconds ticked by.

_Bzzzzt...Bzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzzt..._

Ryoma finally surrendered to it. He sat up slowly while letting out a frustrated sigh. Rubbing his right eye tiredly, his free hand searched for the phone, fumbling in the dark. The sleepiness in Ryoma's eyes cleared when he felt his fingers close around the phone.

He quickly flipped open his orange and white phone, shielding his eyes from the sudden glow of light that radiated from the electric device. He squinted at the words on the phone.

~unknown number calling~

The young man frowned at the tiny black words on his screen when his eyes adjusted. He didn't feel like responding to the call at all.

First, he didn't know _who-in-the-whole-wide-world_ was calling him. Second, he was still quite upset with this 'stranger' for he/she had woken him up at..._Ugh?_

Ryoma glanced at the clock at the corner of the screen.

_Anyway..._This person had woken him up from his satisfying, deep, slumber at_ 2:48_ in the morning.

"..."

He stared at the clock in silence.

_FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE! IT'S ONLY THREE IN THE MORNING! AND STILL DARK OUTSIDE! WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PERSON? WHY CALL NOW?_

Ryoma kicked, whined, and roared in his head as he tossed his pillow into the air. He wasn't overreacting or anything, it was just because he was the kind that had trouble falling asleep again once woken up.

So why should Ryoma please the disrupter by answering?

_Bzzzzt...Bzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzt...Bzzzzzzzt..._

His thumb moved to the power button to shut down his phone, but he hesitated when he was going to press it.

What if the person was calling him because he or she had an emergency?

Ryoma's mind spun. His finger moved back and forth from the answer button to the power button... Was it his mother that was calling? Did Karupin get run over by a car or something? He won't really care if oyaji got run over...

He shuddered at the thought of his dear pet being squashed to mincemeat.

He scowled._ Mincemeat or NOT_, he wanted to go back to sleep as fast he could. He pressed the answer button down hard and quickly raised the phone up to his ear. He would just get it over with quickly; he will say _hello_, ask who he/she was and hang up. _There. _Simple.

"Moshi...Moshi..." he mumbled jadedly into the receiver.

A loud, bold, female voice erupted from the other side.

_【__Eh? Ryoma-sama! You answered? I thought you would never answer because it's so late in America! GOMEN! I had to call now because I was taking care of some...er...business earlier!__】_

Ryoma tore away from the phone, rubbing his ear._ Itai..._Why was this girl talking so loud? And why was she acting like she knew him? Did he knew her at all? Wait...She called him Ryoma-sama so she was a fangirl...Could it be that she one of those creepy stalker fan girls?

"Who are you." He said coldly.

_【 __Hmmm? What do you mean by **'**who are you?' You're so funny Ryoma-sama! __】_

The girl at the other end let out a laugh. For some reason, the laugh had an odd nervous tone in it. It seemed strained.

_"Who are you."_ He repeated, his tone more demanding.

The girl went silent for a while. She appeared to be puzzled.

_Maybe she had called the wrong number after all_...Ryoma thought.

Even so, the girl still answered back as loudly as before.

_【__Mou, Ryoma-sama! You are such a meanie, and so forgetful too! I'm Tomoka! Sakuno's— __】_Tomoka quieted when she mentioned her long-haired friend's name.

_【__I'm Sakuno's...friend... _】The girl managed to finish, her usual loud and bright attitude missing in her words.

An image of a timid looking auburn-haired girl floated up into Ryoma's mind. He felt a tingling feeling in his chest as he surveyed the picture. How strange. He never had a feeling like this before.

"Ah. Osakada." he said simply, the image replaced by a girl with amber brown pigtails.

_Great, it's Miss Loudmouth_. He scoffed in his mind.

"How did you get my phone number?"

【_Oh, Momo-senpai gave it to me._】

Ryoma cursed from inside. Thanks to that _idiot_, he would be bothered by Miss Loudmouth from now on and for eternity. What will Momo-senpai do next? Give his address to an ax-murderer?

He sighed and rolled his eyes before averting his attention back to the phone again.

【_Anyway...Ryoma-sama, did you...Um...Did you read your Ma-ma's letter yet? __】_

Another forced laugh came from Osakada.

Ryoma's forehead creased. _Seriously,_ what's with all the fake giggles and the stuttering? If his memory hadn't gone cuckoo, he recalled that Miss Loudmouth didn't stutter or will laugh nervously at all. _It was Wobbly-hips who did._

He rolled his eyes again and stole a quick look at the untouched letter on his desk. The boy never really bothered to read Rinko's letters at all, because all his mother wrote about were things like reminding him to take care of himself, telling him remember to do _this_ and _that,_ and how much she missed him.

"No." he stated honestly.

_【__Huh? You...you...you haven't?__】_There goes the stuttering again.

"Hn..." he grunted in reply.

_【__Ugh...Well...I called to make sure that you knew 'something'...And Rinko-san explained the 'something' in the letter...But he didn't read it...So...I have to tell Ryoma-sama about it. Right? __】_

Ryoma blinked in confusion. Was she talking to him or was she mumbling to herself? She didn't phrase her words correctly.

"Yeah..." he said hesitantly.

_【__So...Canyoucomebacktojapanthissat urday?__】_

"Nante?"

_【__I said: 'Can-you-come-back-to-Japan-this-saturday.'_】Tomoka pronounced a bit more clearly this time.

Ryoma shrugged. "Yeah." He didn't have anything to do on Saturday anyways.

【Good...】Tomoka inhaled, 【Oh, also make sure that the plane arrives...before...before...3:30 in the afternoon in Japan.】

"Why?" he said promptly.

_【__Because...Um...Well, your kaa-san sent you an invitation in her––__】_

"Invitation to _what?"_ Ryoma said. He had to interrupt her. He was sick of her stupid stuttering.

He heard Tomoka gulp on her side.

【 It's...an invitation...to...a...um...a...】

Tomoka's voice was starting to quiver. Ryoma sensed that she was at the verge of tears. His eyes narrowed suspiciously as he waited for Tomoka to finish.

【_...A...a...__**funeral**__..._】Tomoka finally managed to choke out the words that were causing her so much trouble.

_Death._

The teenager gasped. He stood up in surprise. Ryoma felt something stab into him when he heard that word in Tomoka's sentence. Something was wrong. _Really wrong._

_Death! Death! Death!_

Alarms were going off in Ryoma's head.

_"Funeral? Who's funeral?!"_ He bellowed into the mouth piece while his heart beat accelerated.

Tomoka let out a sob.

_【__Sakuno's...__】_

The world seemed to shatter into pieces.

The phone slid out of his fingers and clattered to the floor.

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**And finish!**

**I might be updating in 1 or 2 or [Insert number here] months. The reason I'm gonna be so slow is because I have a hard time editing and my grammar isn't that good(it took me months to perfect the grammar for this story). Also...I need to finish reading New Prince of Tennis because parts of this story 'might'(hint hint) take place in it so I better finish reading! I can't fly around like a headless fly you see!**

**Ah, also remember to review!**

**Ja ne~ Ukiki **


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